This invention relates generally to mixing and dispensing beverages and, more particularly, to a system for automatically shutting down the dispensing operation when an improper mixing is detected. The present invention has broad applications, but is particularly advantageous for systems that dispense frozen beverages. For purposes of this discussion, the term "frozen beverage" is used to refer to a beverage that is at least partially frozen.
Heretofore, when it was desired to provide a frozen beverage, the beverage was poured into a dispensing container and cooled using a refrigeration unit which maintains the frozen beverage in a desired consistency at a particular temperature. When it is necessary to refill the container, additional beverage is poured into the container and cooled for a period of time before dispensing can resume. Conventional systems for producing frozen beverages were labor-intensive and could not continuously provide frozen beverages. Thus, there is a need for a more efficient and inexpensive system for dispensing frozen beverages.
Moreover, a beverage is typically produced by mixing a beverage concentrate with water in a mixing device. The beverage concentrate generally comes in a bag or a container that requires periodic replacement. Proper mixing of the concentrate and water is necessary to produce a beverage of the correct consistency. Improper mixing not only results in an undesirable beverage consistency, but can also lead to equipment damage. One example is when the beverage concentrate runs out on a bag so that the mixed beverage contains more water than desired. If the water content in the beverage reaches an unacceptable level and the beverage is fed into a cooling unit for producing a frozen beverage, the beverage can freeze into a solid block due to the high water content and destroy the cooling unit. Therefore, there is a need for a system for monitoring the flow of the beverage concentrate into the mixing device to detect the need to replace the bag of concentrate and automatically regulating the flow of the mixed beverage in response to the monitored flow of the beverage concentrate.